Frequently Asked Questions. It’s all about asking the right questions. A man is judged by the questions he asks. What is life all about? Who am I? Where have I come from? Where am I going?
When we begin to ask, we are then qualified to be classified as Humans. Or else we remain close to our animal co-inhabitants, and all we can do is fight to survive, procreate and die. The Human Animal is the only creature on this planet that is capable of progressing along the Evolutionary path using its Intellect, Memory, Intuition and power of deduction to evolve further. All other creatures will always remain in a “static” state of existence, Darwin and his theories notwithstanding.
But questions present themselves out of nowhere: “Who am I?”, “Where have I come from?”, “Where am I going?”, “Why am I here?”
Growing up, my elder brother provided some of the answers, hilarious no doubt, but close to what I was searching for. One afternoon, riding downtown on a bus, a lady asked him, “Sonny, where are you from?” Snap came the answer: “From my mommy’s tummy”.
A few years later, we were filling forms for membership in the Swimming Pool Club, the guy asked my brother: “What caste are you?”. “Caste?” my brother asked. Now in the 50’s that was a real tough one for a 10-year-old growing up in a Catholic school. The clerk immediately rattled off some weird words from an alien vocabulary, “So to which of those castes do you belong?” But my brother, the ace that he always was, says to the man: “Sorry, I’m a plain person”.
Great, for me, that took care of the big “Who am I” mystery.
Then this one: Sunday school, the dear lady would ask questions that would make King Solomon squirm. She says: “What does one have to do to go to Heaven?”. Hands went up. Sheila, the Class Smarty: “If I study hard and pass all my tests, I’ll go to Heaven”. Next hand, Ronny, “If I stay back after school and help teacher clean up”. Hand number three, Josey, “If I say my prayers every night before I go to sleep”. But my brother, no hand up. She points to him: “And Jeff, what would you do?”. Then came this classic: “You gotta die first”.
One more beauty: We are now all grown, my brother driving 15 klicks over the speed limit. We were pulled over by a traffic cop, a real Nazi, and he scowls,“License and Registration”. To counteract the intimidation, my brother jumps out from the driving seat and yells at the menacing uniform: “Do you know who I am?” The copper pulls out his radio, “I’ve got a guy here who doesn’t know who he is”.
Over the years that “wisdom” has stood me in good stead.
But the questions keep haunting my mind.
I once asked a famous wiseman: “Is the world real”? He answers with a question: “Whose world, yours or mine?”. His “question/answer” struck me like lightening. Then all this went through my mind. My World? Yes, each of us lives in his own world. We are responsible for everything we think, feel and do. We create who and what we are! The world is as we see it. Everything we hear, see, taste, touch or smell can be perceived only within us. The situation we are in has been created by us, no one else!
And when I asked “How did we get here, is there a God?” He says: “Everything you feel is God. It’s impossible to know him, for whatever knowledge you pick up about God can only be finite. Anything finite is nothing but ZERO in relation to Infinity”.
Then what is life all about? Would this be the greatest FAQ of all time? Does someone, somewhere know the answer?
The story goes: A wealthy Swiss banker after a few weeks of retirement, not used to sitting all day with his feet up, soon began to wonder: What is Life all about? He was happy with his new lifestyle. He began to see that fresh air, good food, the company of friends and family was all one really needed. But he was determined to find the answer.
He decided he would to travel to India. Way up in the coldest reaches of the Himalayas they said there was a Guru who knew the answer he was looking for. After several weeks trekking the highest mountains in conditions that people from Switzerland are familiar with, he came across this cave, perhaps the most isolated spot on earth, in which this wise man, bearded, wrapped in a blanket, eyes closed, sat totally still, deep in meditation.
One ancient practice he was told, was never to disturb a person in meditation. He learned that such enlightened beings know everything about everything, even the past, present and future. So he waited. The old monk slowly came out of his transcendental state and greeted his visitor with great love as they believe that the Supreme Consciousness dwells in every human.
Before the banker could utter a word, the holy man said to him: “If you tell me the most profitable and secure portfolio to invest in, I will give you the answer you seek”. And with that he burst into peals of laughter.
Then he said:
“Life is about making one of two choices. You can decide to be sad and grumpy all day or you may live in a state of bliss at all times. It’s up to you alone. Everything in the Cosmos happens automatically, whatever is going to happen has already happened. Everything is Divine Consciousness so what is there to accept, and what is there to reject. Live every moment of life in total bliss.
Make the better choice, preserve yourself in a state of bliss every given moment on this wonderful earth. That’s really what it’s all about”.
And that’s a FAQ.
(The author is now a permanent resident of Goa after many years of living in Mumbai, New York and London)
